Paintball
by toumeiillusion
Summary: To be fair, it really isn't Emie's strongest suit but that doesn't mean she can't do it. She just needs a push or two, maybe even a trickster to help her out. [Twelve Shots of Summer: Trinity Limit]


Emie squinted at the plans before her. It was ridiculous to think that she could do any of those movements without breaking herself in half. She wasn't an acrobat. She wasn't even athletic. She was an ex-shut in who did online schooling for most of her life. The only thing she did that even remotely counted as exercising was the hour or so of walking on a treadmill to get her gym credits out of the way. Doing flips and tumbles and hunting down small boys and _dashing across a field while being shot at_ were not on her list of abilities.

On the other hand, however, the way her team was looking at her and the sheer amount of faith that their elected leader and strategist were putting in her almost made it seem possible. Emie summoned up what little trust in herself she had and breathed out.

"Okay. I'll try. Don't… Yell at me if I screw up."

"That's all we're asking for, Ems. You'll do fine." Dave flashed her that trademark cool kid smile and she tried to trust him. He'd never been wrong before. Or, at least, he'd never been wrong about her before.

Everyone spread out into their positions and Emie pressed her back to her tree, waiting for the signal to move. She didn't understand why they were taking this game so seriously. It wasn't a big deal. They had a paintball fight every weekend. It was always the same people on the same teams in the same place. Maybe the outcomes were different (they couldn't be expected to lose _every_ game) but that didn't mean they had to be so intense about it. She couldn't see the point in taking something that was supposed to be fun and making it feel like life or death.

Or maybe she was the only feeling that.

 _It doesn't matter,_ Emie thought. _They always look happy at the end. And you get pizza when it's all over. Everyone always goes for pizza together afterwords._

She glanced over to where their strategist was hiding. He was crouched low in the bush, eyes scanning over the open section field, and she could feel the intensity coming off of him. If she didn't know better, Emie might have thought he was trying to summon a crater in the middle of it.

 _That's just how Karkat is,_ she reminded herself. _He always looks like he's gonna make a hole in the middle of whatever he's looking at. It's his thing._

"He's right, you know. You'll be fine."

Emie blinked, not sure if he was really talking to her or if she was just imagining it. It wasn't exactly hard to conjure up his voice in her mind. Karkat's voice was distinct, scratchy and a little high. She always thought he was talking from either high up in his head or the back of his throat. It wasn't the kind of voice that was easy to replicate out loud.

"Just stop thinking about it so much. It doesn't have to be perfect or clean. You don't even have to do most of that fancy bullshit he decided to put into it. The result is what matters here. Take Egbert out and the rest will be like icing on the proverbial cake."

"Easy for you to say. John is like… A good bit taller and heavier than me. I couldn't take him down even if I had Nepeta's help. I'd need a miracle to-"

"What you need," Karkat interrupted, turning to look directly at her. Emie felt his eyes making holes where her's should be. "Is to shut up and believe in yourself for a minute. Trust is nice and all and, sure, _we_ all believe in you but that's exactly shit compared to what you think about yourself. If you don't think you can do it, then you can't. It's that damn simple."

Emie frowned and looked away, trying not to feel like he was still staring her down. There were tears budding in the corners of her eyes. He was probably right. Everyone was always saying that she could do things if she thought she could, or if she tried, or if she would just stop complaining about her lack of skill for just five seconds. She tried to listen to them, honestly, but she couldn't think it was really that easy. If that was all it took then she wouldn't be so awkward.

"…Look, I'm not trying to be an asshole. You look like someone just took your macaroni art picture, threw it into the garbage disposal, and you can't get the sound out of your head. I get that. Seriously. But eventually you've gotta get over it and make a new one. So what if you mess up? So what if we lose? No one is gonna like it but no one is gonna blame you either."

"I-"

"No time for that. Fish-for-brains is waving his gun in the air like an idiot. You gotta get moving. Breathe. Oh, and try to steer clear of Gamzee. You'll never get away from him if he catches you."

Emie groaned internally. Of course this would be cut short. Of course she wouldn't get to actually air anything out. Pushing off of the tree, she crouched down and moved as quickly as she could along the least root ridden path.

[]

Her target was in a tree. Somewhere. That was literally all the information she'd been given when this strategy session started and she sure as hell wasn't getting any more now. While everyone else was looking behind old walls and into bushes, Emie was keeping low to the ground and craning her head upward to find the elusive John Egbert. She was starting to wonder if he was even actually where they'd sent her and he hadn't snuck off to some other location. It wasn't like it would be the first time. He was so small he could hide pretty much anywhere.

Emie groaned. This was too much work just to knock the trickster out of the race. They should have sent someone else to find him. Someone who wasn't a walking target board. She'd probably get blue paint all over herself before she got him even once, and that was just if she didn't listen to the one shot rule. She was going to have to somehow sneak up on him or dodge every shot he fired.

"So unfair," she grumbled, leaning up against a tree. She could vaguely hear the shouts of Karkat and Vriska that told her they'd made a move into the middle ground. She could imagine that everyone was doing a fair job of making both of them aggravated and ignoring whatever plans the two had laid before starting the charge. Vriska always led the blue team, after all, and her team mates never met her expectations. She'd been stuck with her the first time Emie joined the group. She never wanted to be there again.

Leaves rustled in the tree above her and Emie jumped, quickly moving away and hearing a paintball break on the ground. _I guess I just found him_ , she thought as she backed up further. She could see his hair against the background of green tree leaves and his bright blue eyes were an easy to spot sign of where he perched.

"Awww! I almost got you too."

"John! You almost hit me in the head! Do you know how dangerous that is, you butt?"

"Nah, I was aiming for your shoulder. I'm not that stupid."

Emie pouted and fiddled with the little paintball gun in her hands. She knew there was no way she could hit him like this but he never seemed to actually leave the trees when someone was looking at him. When Terezi had talked strategy with them a few nights before, she'd made sure everyone knew that. Emie could probably find a way to use that, or she could if she wasn't so sure she couldn't even fire the gun.

"That doesn't mean your aim is any good! Neck and below are the rules and you know it."

John's face didn't fall even as Emie pointed out how illegal his move had been. He grinned and dropped down another branch, lazily hanging a leg over the side of the branch. It was an easy target. She would barely have to try to get it.

"Shoulders are below the neck."

"My head isn't."

"I told you I wasn't going to hit you in the head! Man, you harp more than Karkat does. Is everyone on the Red Team so chatty?"

He was trying to get her to ease up. Emie could tell by the casual way he was talking. For all his dorkiness and humor veiled meanness, he definitely had a few points in charisma and diplomacy. She tried not to let his calmness sink in to her too. He had to be ready to shoot her the moment her let her guard down. Emie wasn't even sure she had the reflexes to avoid another out of nowhere shot.

"Shouldn't you know? We're literally all friends."

"There are no friends on the paintball battlefield, Emie. Only close acquaintances."

"Since when do you steal phrases out of Karkat's books?"

John laughed, his eyes closing, and Emie took the chance to fire at him. He got his leg out of the way but it didn't change the surprise on his face as he looked between where she'd fired and where she stood. Emie could feel herself shaking a bit. She'd been close. Dave and Karkat were right.

She could do this.

"Oh it's on now."

"Damn right it is."

Emie took off and hid behind a tree, taking a quick breather. _How am I not losing weight from all of this,_ she asked herself, giving a halfhearted laugh. She'd never been the kind to crack jokes in serious moments. She didn't crack jokes in general, really.

"What's so funny?"

She pushed off of the tree and whipped around, shooting off into the tree where she was sure his voice came from. The sound of a loud splat echoed in her ears for a moment before she was sure it hit the tree and not the body. Emie clicked her tongue.

"Well, your face for starters. Are you wearing contacts or are you blind right now?"

"I'd hope for all our sakes that I'm wearing contacts."

Emie fired off another shot and stepped a bit to the side when she heard his gun go off. Paint splattered a few inches to her right and she was glad she'd moved in the right direction. If anything, she was the blind one here.

"That honestly does not inspire any good feelings. Can I get a straight answer, please?"

"I have contact in. Specifically one contact. The other one kinda got torn."

"That's really unhealthy you know."

"Eh. I'll be fine. It's never hurt me before."

Emie scowled and looked around for exactly where John was. He was so getting a lecture for that when the game was over. Either from her or from Kanaya.

"You're lucky I don't tell your dad about your contact habits."

She peered around the corner of a tree and smiled to herself. She caught him. John was just jumping out of his tree and his back was to her. If she did it right, she could have him out of the game in a flash. Emie tried not to think about messing up or that this chance was one in a million. Instead, she thought of how smug her team would be that someone had managed to take him out before he was in the clearing.

She took in a deep, quiet breath and aimed for the center of his back. With something like a small prayer, she pulled the trigger and watched the red paint spread across his white shirt.

"…Aww man… I liked this shirt."


End file.
